Who's sayin' that stuff?

February 12, 2025 2:05 PM

The Gunfighter (Best Short Film Ever) [YT 8:49] (CW: A FEW CRUDE BITS IN THE MIDDLE) "In the tradition of classic westerns, a narrator sets up the story of a lone gunslinger who walks into a saloon. However, the people in this saloon can hear the narrator and the narrator may just be a little bit bloodthirsty." The narrator: Nick Offerman.

Also on Vimeo

previously posted! (2014), and with some pretty great reactions

Interview with the director at The Wrap

posted by Glinn (17 comments total)

Mod note: Hi, the OP asked the following note added as a heads up:
"Could you maybe just add a note on my recently posted Gunfighter thinger, that there are a few crude comments in the middle". Said note was put in the post and this here fancy comment.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 2:46 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]

That was much funnier and better than I thought it would be.
posted by davidmsc at 3:05 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

It's still not gonna bring back westerns.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:15 PM on February 12

I saw this last year as a lead-in to a big-screen showing of Blazing Saddles, and fit the tone (if not a bit more violent).
posted by AzraelBrown at 3:17 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

The sequel features a man standing alone at a microphone, where he begins to speak his lines, when the voice of a woman starts recounting his dream of being a Broadway actor, dreams shattered by his inability to speak in front of other people.
posted by njohnson23 at 3:33 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]

Nick Offerman nailed the narration. There's no way any other narrator could have made this anything like as funny as he did.
posted by orange swan at 3:57 PM on February 12 [8 favorites]

This reminds me of the 2006 movie Stranger Than Fiction, which uses a similar premise.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:01 PM on February 12 [6 favorites]

Nick Offerman nailed the narration. There's no way any other narrator could have made this anything like as funny as he did.
And I like how, in my head, I can hear his voice adding "Best Short Film Ever" to the basic title.
posted by rongorongo at 11:59 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

Agreed, the only narrator that could have done this better would have been Harvey Korman
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:09 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

That one guy is his son, right?
posted by Gadarene at 5:43 AM on February 13

A++ would watch again

the only improvement I can think of would be re-referencing the bear that wasn't behind the gunslinger instead of a wolf at the very end.
posted by chavenet at 5:44 AM on February 13 [4 favorites]

Thanks for the repost, I missed it the first time. Reminds me of the Robert Mitchum episode of SNL in which he's doing a film noir spoof in which he's doing the voice-over narration while he's physically in the scene--trying to hide the fact that he's talking by blocking the view of his mouth--and others in the scene keep asking him who he's talking to.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:24 AM on February 13 [2 favorites]

From the midpoint, they had a bunch of options for how to bring it home. The way they went felt like the safe option -- all the bits we wrote this for are done, let's just bring this in for a landing. I would've liked to see them up the absurdity in some way, or add some completely different emotional notes.
posted by gurple at 8:27 AM on February 13 [2 favorites]

> the only improvement I can think of would be re-referencing the bear that wasn't behind the gunslinger instead of a wolf at the very end.

I had the exact same thought! When the character mentioned the bear, my inner monologue whispered "Chekhov's bear." Then at the end when the narrator said "...mauled by a...", I thought, "look how clever I am!", but the ! turned into . _

Nevertheless, it was amusing.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 1:24 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]

Chekhov's bear

also a good sockpuppet name.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:30 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]

Damn, I could listen to Nick Offerman read copy all day. His delivery is brilliant. Reminds me of old news broadcasts from the '60-70s.
posted by Sphinx at 2:00 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Since I was beaten to the Stranger than Fiction comparison, my favorite diegetic/non-diegetic confusion is the tweaking mugger dancing to the movie soundtrack in the hallway outside of Corbin Dallas' apartment in The Fifth Element. I also did not realize until the DVD release that he was wearing a hat with a printed photo of the hallway (it wasn't at all clear in the bad vhs copy why Dallas said "nice hat").
posted by autopilot at 9:42 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]